Large buildings such as schools, office buildings and hotels generally have central heating and air-conditioning systems for controlling the temperature and humidity of the air in the building. These temperature and humidity control systems typically include a fluid source and piping for transporting a fluid such as air, steam or water throughout the building. The control systems generally also contain heat transfer coils which communicate with the piping and are used to moderate the temperature and humidity of a second fluid such as air in the control system to provide warm or cool air to an enclosed space within the building. The piping and heat transfer coils of the temperature and humidity control systems are generally located in between floors in large buildings, thus not affecting the actual workspace and the inside appearance of the building.
Temperature and humidity control systems such as heating and air-conditioning systems typically require periodic service and inspection to keep the system working correctly and efficiently. Such service or inspection may include bleeding air that has accumulated in the heating or air-conditioning system or measuring the temperature or pressure of a fluid in the heating or air-conditioning system to determine if the system is working correctly and efficiently. This is conventionally accomplished by accessing an air vent (usually a valve) in the heating and air-conditioning system. Nevertheless, because the heating or air-conditioning system is generally located between floors in the building, a technician or inspector generally must climb into the ceiling to access the air vent. Often, this requires moving tiles and locating the air vent in the system to access the system. Requiring the technician or inspector to climb into the ceiling can be extremely dangerous and results in an increased risk of injury due to the possibility of falling from ladders or the ceiling. This is especially true in large buildings having high ceilings such as a school gymnasium or a hotel atrium. This increased risk not only may result in injury to technicians or inspectors but may also result in payments by the building owner for liability or worker's compensation to compensate the technician or inspector for his injuries.
In addition, because many technicians and inspectors are frequently paid on an hourly basis, the time needed to access the system increases the cost of service or inspection of the heating or air-conditioning system. Often with large buildings, if there is a problem in the system, numerous locations in the heating or air-conditioning system, even hundreds of locations, must be accessed to determine the location of the problem thus multiplying the risk of injury and cost of service and inspection.
Therefore, there is a need to provide increased access to heating or air-conditioning systems to allow a technician or inspector to access a system and to reduce the risk of injury and the cost associated with conventional methods.